Auckland Council’s finance & performance committee agreed yesterday – against strong minority opposition – to sell 7 of its offices & parking lots around the region, including the former council chambers of 3 of the super-city’s predecessor councils.

Committee chair Ross Clow said the sale programme was likely to be spread over 4-6 years.

The debate on outlying properties around the region has raised a conflict between history & familiarity on one side, versus upgrading to more appropriate premises on the other.

Cllr Clow said in a release after the meeting: “This decision is about the next step on our journey towards becoming a fit-for-purpose organisation that makes the most of its assets.

“In making this decision, local communities have been top of mind. Auckland is a big city and residents need to be able to deal with their council face-to-face. The corporate property strategy ensures that all service centres remain open and the strong connection between council & its local communities remains.

“It will also improve our services to Aucklanders, for example, face-to-face access to council regulatory services in all 13 wards rather than in only half, which is the current situation.

“It also puts 96% of Auckland’s population within 10km of a council office.”

Cllr Clow said retaining the former council chamber buildings would have been expensive: “If we did nothing, we forecast having to spend around $200 million on servicing ageing buildings over the next decade, leaving us with a shortfall of $117 million that would need to be found elsewhere.

“At a time when we must prioritise investing in transport, housing & our environment, we simply can’t afford to fund property maintenance on buildings that are no longer fit for purpose.”

The council will invest proceeds from the sale of the properties in its existing property portfolio to ensure it maintains remaining buildings to a high standard.

At Orewa & Pukekohe, the sale of the property will mean relocation of local services.

The buildings & land agreed for sale are:

Aotea Quarter, 4-10 Mayoral Drive

Victoria Quarter, 35 Graham St (and associated buildings)

Henderson, 6 Henderson Valley Rd (excluding the civic building containing the former council chamber)

Parts of the council’s Henderson offices are also on the sale list, but the old Waitakere chamber & Japanese garden, which have heritage status, will be retained.

The committee was to have made its decisions on 17 April, but deferred the debate.

Also on the list are the council’s Graham St office building overlooking the Viaduct waterfront area in the cbd, the parking lot beside the Aotea Centre & Bledisloe House, also in the cbd, and a Manuku office building, Kotuku House.

They have a combined 2017 capital valuation of $190 million.

The disposal proposals have been compiled by the council’s inhouse corporate property team, which has also put together a programme to invest the sale proceeds in a council corporate property network described as “fit-for-purpose & future-proofed” and “aligned to the structure of the organisation”.

The future network is intended to comprise:

1 headquarters at Auckland House (135 Albert St)

3 hubs in the north/west (Albany or Westgate), central (Bledisloe House) and the south (Manukau Civic)

4 new local board spaces where displaced by building closures

17 refreshed local board spaces

7 new customer service centre spaces where displaced by building closures

Auckland Council’s finance & performance committee will consider the sale of 7 council-owned properties next Tuesday, including 5 former council chambers around the region.

The other 2 on the list are the Graham St building overlooking the Viaduct waterfront area in the cbd, and the parking lot beside the Aotea Centre & Bledisloe House, also in the cbd.

They have a combined 2017 capital valuation of $190 million.

Local boards oppose the sale of the Henderson, Orewa & Papakura properties, which contain the council chambers plus offices of the former Waitakere, Rodney & Papakura councils.

2 of those, the Henderson-Massey & Hibiscus & Bays boards, expressed concern at the short notice and at provision for local accommodation for council services.

However, committee chair Ross Clow said the council intended to retain all its 23 customer service centres & 21 local board offices.

He said that under the council’s corporate property building strategy, the council would retain a local, face-to-face presence with communities across Auckland and provide appropriate office space for the council’s elected representatives & council staff: “Aucklanders will still be able to interact with the council in their local areas,” he said. “This proposal is about making the council more efficient, more effective & more in touch with our community.”

In some locations such as Orewa & Pukekohe, the sale of the property will mean the location of the local services will change: “Any local board office or customer service centre that could be affected by the sale of any of these buildings will be relocated within the area, in consultation with the relevant local board.

“Alongside this, we expect to reduce our operational costs of running buildings we no longer occupy as we move to more modern & efficient workplaces.”

The first tender documents for the largest component of Auckland’s city rail link project – the construction of the tunnels & new stations – were released to the industry yesterday, a fortnight after expressions of interest were sought for the design, procurement, installation & commissioning of all tunnel track work & rail systems between Britomart Station & the Western Line at Mt Eden.

2 new stations will be built as part of the underground rail line linking Britomart with the existing western line near Mt Eden. The new stations will be near Aotea Square (artist’s impression at top), with entrances at Wellesley & Victoria Sts, and a station in Mercury Lane, just off Karangahape Rd. The Mt Eden train station will be extended & redeveloped. Associated works are already underway around downtown Auckland.

An artist’s impression of the new Karangahape station, which will be the deepest at 30m below ground.

Project director Chris Meale said yesterday the 2m-wide tunnel-boring machine simultaneously excavating & installing a new stormwater pipe under Albert St had finished the first leg of its journey. The 9-storey-high piling rig working in Albert St has dug over 140 of the 376 piles required.

An artist’s impression of the planned redeveloped station at Mt Eden.

The tunnels & stations contract will be procured using a design & construct model with a lump sum price based on a bespoke contract.

Stripping out Auckland Council’s old civic administration building and converting it to high-end apartments is more than the usual single-building development. It’s the start of a 4-building project which is likely to be the making of the Aotea precinct.

The scene today (photo above): The town hall, former civic administration building at the side of Aotea Square, and the Grand Millennium hotel behind it.

Aotea, for all its civic components, has been a cul-de-sac. It has the town hall on the Queen St side and the Q Theatre beside it, the Aotea Centre for staged events on the other side of the square has been opened up with café seating above the square, the Bledisloe public-sector office building off to the Wellesley St side remains an imposing off-limits shadow, the Sky Metro cinemas along its eastern edge still doesn’t provide ambience on the square, and the area is served by parking for 930 cars under the square.

Aotea Square, looking towards Queen St.

These components are all disparate, and often the square would be empty. Council efforts to make Aotea Square a place to go to have worked – iceskating, various events, the current “relax” accent – but it’s still been a cul-de-sac. You walk into it naturally from Queen St, but by chance from all other directions.

The impressive hotel on Mayoral Drive – originally the Pan Pacific and more recently the Rendezvous Grand, renamed the Grand Millennium last September – has always been a distinctly separate entity across a busy urban arterial road, with poor connection to the square.

Much of that will change, not through conversion of the council administration building to upmarket, mostly owner-occupier apartments, but through the connections around that building.

John Love with the model of the Civic Quarter development in the onsite display suite.

When Love & Co director John Love took me through his plans for the development project yesterday, the ideas – especially the interiors & surprise features of the CAB (the converted building’s name) designed by his wife, Josephine – were very inviting, but they were about what makes a residential building a better product.

The second apartment building beside it, current title Greys (the address is 1 Greys Avenue) – will add residential volume, taking the total to about 500 residents. But beside it will be a narrow lane. And splitting the hotel along the Mayoral Drive front will be another lane, and they will lead to a terrace at mezzanine level of the CAB, with retail & hospitality on both sides.

That terrace (above) is what will make Aotea a through-precinct. The next stage will be to make Mayoral Drive less of a racetrack.

The Whare Tapere.

The 4-storey Whare Tapere arts, cultural & performance space to be built between the apartments (with childcare or commercial space on the top floors), the Q Theatre and the lawn on Aotea Square is the feature that made longtime developer Mike Mahoney (Josephine Love’s father) most enthusiastic about this development, for which he will be a consultant: While the new generation’s work impresses him, “I can’t stop,” he told me with a smile last night.

Beneath the whole development will be 3½ basement parking levels for 350 cars, an extension of the 3 basement levels of the old administration building, separate from the 930 public parking spaces under Aotea Square.

Mr Love said wealthy apartment owners wanted parking, though it didn’t mean they would be constantly entering the traffic. Parking hasn’t been allocated strictly per unit, but there will be a limit of 6 spaces for the CAB penthouse (a day car, a night car, a blue car, a red car…).

104 apartments in the CAB

The CAB will have 104 apartments, with the ability to combine units, as was done in the early marketing stages at the 8 Hereford & Hopetoun Residences conversions of the former Telecom & Baycorp office buildings below the Karangahape Rd ridge.

Tawera Group Ltd, headed by Mike Mahoney’s son David, undertook the Hereford & Hopetoun conversions, with the rest of the family contributing. John Love, an accountant with long corporate experience including roles at KPMG & CS First Boston, was Tawera’s chief financial officer. This time he’s in charge through J Love & Co Ltd and the project development company, Civic Lane Ltd, while Josephine Love continues her design input, which is a major influence.

Apartments in the CAB will range from 56m² one-bedroom units to 3 bedrooms & 115m². At $600,000 for one bedroom, the price equates to $10,700/m². Mr Love said the average in the market for new-builds was about $13,000/m². The sub-penthouse floor was priced at around $20,000/m².

The special apartment is this building will be the 600m² penthouse, priced at $14 million, or $23,300/m². It will have a 4m stud height, an internal courtyard and wide city views, but will come in short of the $15.7 million paid for the 525m² penthouse in the International on Princes St.

Still, if numbers expressing initial interest are any guide, the CAB could achieve the construction green light quickly. Mr Love said 250 buyers had replied to the launch of 8 Hereford, and 500 had replied for the CAB.

Greys off to side, hotel will cradle CAB

The second apartment development, Greys, will be a 16-storey tower with a 15,500m² gross floor area for about 150 apartments, on the current parking lot at the corner of Mayoral Drive.

The hotel design has been tweaked so it will cradle the CAB, with a lane through the middle of it to the terrace between that building and the CAB. The design has 7 storeys & 147 hotel rooms of 25-28m². Mr Love said the hotel brands were still being assessed.

The admin building conversion

But first comes the administration building conversion, requiring the asbestos to be removed and the building to be stripped back to a base steel & concrete shell. On completion, Mr Love said, “You will see very little difference in the detail of the façade”.

But there will be new features – double glazing, loggias opening up larger apartments, new lifts. The building’s seismic rating will increase from 67% to 100% of new building standard.

“We’re very lucky that, when this building was developed in 1966, Tibor Donner, the designer (and Auckland City Council’s chief architect from 1946-67) brought over a steel moment frame, which was remarkably modern. It needs some minor tweaks.”

Mr Love said the floorplates were “quite tricky” for conversion because the building was narrow, but it offered long east & west aspects.

“Not many developers do 3-bedroom apartments, especially in the city. But we have a focus on owner-occupiers, and Josephine created a ‘master wing’ containing a bedroom, walk-in wardrobe & ensuite at one end, and the other 2 bedrooms at the other end.”

The design includes large storage capacity in the 2- & 3-bedroom apartments, which Mr Love said developers often missed out or made inadequate provision for.

All units have the same kitchen, “not shrunk for the one-bedroom units – everyone gets an entertainer’s kitchen”.

For the 65m² one-bedroom units, he said, “We’ve tried to create a cool city pad, a study space with an ensuited bedroom. The trend has been with some of the smaller apartments for guests to have to traipse through your bedroom to the bathroom because they don’t have ensuites.”

From experience with owner variation requests at other developments, Mr Love said 3 colour schemes would be offered. There was also a strong preference for natural products – oak floors thick enough to be sanded back 6 or 7 times (compared to some which are the thickness of wallpaper).

Overall, “Josephine’s design philosophy is not to force her design on to people. She creates a palette to make their changes to.”

Love & Co has also brought in Shane & Luanne Cotton as artistic consultants to enhance the cultural & creative elements of The CAB and the whole Civic Quarter, which Mr Love believed was a unique approach for a development.

Auckland Council urban development agency Panuku Development Auckland has selected Tawera Group Ltd to restore the heritage category A former civic administration building on Aotea Square, in a new-look Civic Quarter.

Image above: An impression of the revived civic administration building, with new buildings on Mayoral Drive & Greys Avenue and the Rendezvous hotel (now the Grand Millennium) in the background.

Tawera (director & shareholder David Mahoney) intends to convert upper floors to apartments, open food & beverage on the ground floor, add an apartment building on the Mayoral Drive corner of the site, a new boutique hotel on Mayoral Drive and a building featuring a whare tapere performance space fronting Aotea Square.

The selection followed an international tender. The council quit the administration building in 2014, forced out by the asbestos throughout, but leaving anyway because it was no longer fit for the super-city council’s use.

The building, designed in the mid-1950s & completed in 1966, would have 8479m² of floorspace on 19 floors.

Tawera’s most recent experience in conversions is at the former Telecom building at 8 Hereford St and former Baycorp House at 15 Hopetoun St, both just down from the Karangahape Rd ridge.

In a presentation yesterday, Panuku said the mix of development in the proposed Civic Quarter was still to be finalised. However, it would be market-driven, with a focus on quality outcomes.

Construction is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2017 and be completed by the third quarter of 2020.

The Town Hall on Queen St, civic administration building on Greys Avenue, 2 of the buildings flanking Aotea Square.

Panuku project director Clive Fuhr said it was important to provide a viable commercial opportunity that would enable the restoration of the heritage building, provision of more housing and the revitalisation of this precinct.

Auckland Council’s Auckland development committee approved 2 important documents for city centre rejuvenation yesterday – a review of the targets in the city centre masterplan and the Aotea Quarter framework.

When the masterplan was published in 2012 it had 9 intended outcomes & 36 targets. The outcomes have been retained after a review, but the targets have been revised & reduced to 24.

The council’s city centre advisory board supported the changes last year to better gauge progress during the next few years of extensive change, including construction of the city rail link, Precinct Properties Ltd’s replacement of the Downtown shopping centre with the Commercial Bay office & retail development, and a new Mansons TCLM Ltd office development & hotel on the former NZ Herald site on Albert St.

Endorsement of the Aotea Quarter framework brought more jubilation from staff & councillors who see the quarter having the potential to rival the waterfront as a destination. Tim Watts – who was the council’s head of design and has just moved to the same role with a wider brief at Panuku Development Auckland – said this would especially be the case once Aotea Station was built.

He said key points of the original 2007 framework (written by the old Auckland City Council) had been reaffirmed, but in the intervening years the area had changed, with a burgeoning residential quarter on the verges of the core.

Cllr Cameron Brewer was concerned that the framework as presented didn’t contain any financial details, although some of its costs were in the long-term plan. Mr Watts said “a framework is just the bones on which you attach further detail”, and thought “the next level of detail needs to be worked up through the council development project offices”.

Deputy mayor & committee chair Penny Hulse told Cllr Brewer: “It’s now a 20-year document. Figures are somewhat immaterial at the moment. We are not signing off a capital project list,” and added: “Outcomes are strategic vision, they may be completely undeliverable.”

Discussions continue on civic admin building

The other large feature of the neighbourhood is the council’s former civic administration building on the edge of Aotea Square, abandoned because of asbestos & major repairs required. The council shifted its headquarters up to the former ASB Bank head office at 135 Albert St last year.

Mr Watts said the council’s development team held a briefing yesterday for shortlisted developers.

The overwhelming view in feedback on the building’s future was that retention was preferable, but there wasn’t much discussion around the end use.

Cllr Hulse said the building’s future would be on the agenda at the council finance & performance committee’s next meeting: “The decision sits with us on how much money we want to put in the budget.”

It’s not quite as simple as the fate of one building, though. The council-controlled Regional Facilities Auckland is also looking at better links between its Aotea assets, including improving vehicular access to the Aotea Centre from Mayoral Drive and pedestrian access.

Lee critical, Darby sees opportunities galore

Cllr Mike Lee thought closure of the old civic administration building was bad both financially and in civic terms: “The work is predicated on solving a problem, and the problem is the civic square is not pulling its weight. How did that happen? Was it our decision-making? It was our decision to desert the building – a perfectly functional civic building has been locked up and we’ve gone up the road to a bank building.”

However development committee deputy chair Chris Darby, who’s been heavily involved in the framework process, said the framework was about far more than Aotea Square and the administration building: “It’s about 4 key things – civic & cultural, transport-enabled development, non-stop entertainment and a cultural & sustainable showcase. There are 8500 seats in this quarter (not counting some of the privately operated cinemas). It’s quite phenomenal the resource we’ve got, and we’ve never quite got it together. I see this midtown as becoming as seductive as the waterfront.”

He saw revenue opportunities as well as costs from the civic administration building (a $45 million upgrade & $30 million for redevelopment), from developments such as the pop-up Globe Theatre in a council parking lot beside the Q Theatre, and from changes to the Aotea Centre.

“The Aotea Centre looks like HMNZS Canterbury, looks like it wants to float away. The bones are good inside and it needs to marry up, behind, with neighbours, and greet the square more. Its terraces should be living spaces, not alien green roofs. I think that building should be subject to a design competition – we’re almost half doing that at the civic administration building.

“I think there’s the template here for great things to unfold. I look for outrageously good architecture to flow out of this. This quarter is going to be attracting a lot of Aucklanders in years to come, particularly when rail & light rail flow through it.”

Prime Minister John Key found many positives on the economic front when he addressed a Chamber of Commerce audience in Auckland on Wednesday.

For Auckland, much of the positive was in transport infrastructure – some of it the slow dawning of the realisation that holding up one public project can be detrimental for many private projects.

On the economy generally, he said dairy prices were low globally, but the New Zealand dairy sector was well placed to attract middle-class customers in key markets. “In the meantime, tourism, construction, international education, ICT, high-tech manufacturing, services & a number of our primary industries are all growing and underpinning a solid outlook.”

Treasury’s latest forecasts showed economic growth averaging just under 3% over the next 5 years.

The Government was working to bring the unemployment rate down from 6%. New Zealand’s employment rate was the third highest in the developed world. 160,000 more jobs were created in the last 3 years, nearly 66,000 of them in Auckland, and Treasury expected another 195,000 jobs to be created nationally by 2020. Under this government, the average wage had increased by more than double the rate of inflation.

City rail link:

Mr Key said it had become clear that the Government needed to provide certainty for planned cbd developments affected by the city rail link, so he confirmed the Government’s funding commitment to the project from 2020. He said: “CBD employment levels are still some way from the 25% growth threshold. But strong growth in rail patronage since 2013 means it will reach the 20 million annual trip threshold well before 2020.”

The Government set those thresholds in January 2014, when Auckland mayor Len Brown told Mr Key he wanted construction of Auckland’s city rail link brought forward to start in 2016.

In the face of the rising number of development projects whose success – and efficient construction – hinged on the rail link being put in place, the Government’s intransigence on timing was daft. On Wednesday, Mr Key said the council had indicated Government confirmation would allow construction of the rail link’s main works to start in 2018, at least 2 years earlier than currently envisaged.

“It would also allow the council to get on with negotiating contracts and providing certainty for investors in other important Auckland cbd projects. These include the $350 million NDG Auckland Centre next to the new Aotea Station and the $680 million Commercial Bay tower opposite Britomart.

“Timely confirmation of these & other projects, alongside the rail link, will encourage more people, businesses & jobs into the heart of Auckland. It should also reduce the period of disruption in the central city by concentrating construction over a shorter timeframe.

“We still need to work through a number of important & quite complex issues with the council. These include how project costs will be finally shared between the Government & the council and how the rail link will be owned & managed. Providing these issues are resolved – and I’m confident they can be – we’ll aim to finalise the business plan later this year.”

Auckland Transport figures show that rail patronage increased 22.9% or 2.9 million trips to 15.4 million trips last year. At current growth rates, the patronage target of 20 million trips/year would be achieved at the end of this year, 3 years ahead of schedule.

East-West Connection a priority:

Mr Key confirmed the East-West Connection between the Southern & South-western Motorways would go through a streamlined consenting process this year to bring forward its construction. It’s another large & complex project, estimated to cost over $1 billion: “It’s a priority for Auckland because it will improve travel & freight times in this busy part of the city. It will also provide much better access between the eastern suburbs and the airport. We consider it a project of national significance.”

The streamlined process means a consenting decision will need to be made within 9 months of application: “Subject to approval, it’s the Government’s intention to fund the East-West Connection through the Land Transport Fund so construction can start as early as 2018. I’ve asked ministers & officials for advice on how this can be managed & achieved. In the meantime, the NZ Transport Agency will start early project work later this year on widening State Highway 20 between Neilson St & Queenstown Rd. This is integral to the wider East-West Connection and will support traffic growth when the Waterview tunnels open.”

Other infrastructure:

Mr Key said $4.2 billion would be invested in transport in & around Auckland in the next 3 years. He said the Government was on track to complete the western ring route by 2019 – the Te Atatu & Lincoln interchanges would open in March, the Waterview connection early next year.

Construction of the $1.3 billion Ameti (Auckland-Manukau eastern transport initiative) was underway. Stage 1 has been completed and work has started on designing & consenting for stage 2.

The Southern Motorway upgrade started in October and is scheduled to be completed in late 2018.

Construction of the Northern Motorway upgrade is expected to start in 2018, connecting with the western ring route and completing the northern busway extension through to Albany [from Silverdale].

Correction 15 August 2015: Sale prices were originally transposed for 2 units, the Connaught & Uptown, now corrected.

All 8 Auckland apartments (originally I wrote 7) taken to auction at Ray White City Apartments today were sold under the hammer. One in Rotorua was passed in $6000 short of a transaction after the declared reserve of $170,000 was lowered by $5000. Auction results:

Auckland Council’s Auckland development committee went into discussion behind closed doors this afternoon on the council’s position concerning Eden Park in the unitary plan hearing on major recreation facilities, due to start next Wednesday.

The council was due to have got its evidence in to the hearings panel by Monday this week but legal input into the document was only completed at 2am today. Deputy mayor & committee chair Penny Hulse raised the topic as an item of extraordinary business and, as with all council discussions on positions take at the hearings, to debate it confidentially.

Cllr Cathy Casey wanted it deferred because nothing had been tabled, and both she & fellow Albert-Eden ward councillor Christine Fletcher said they & local board members should have been notified of the issue in advance. The committee has delegated many of the decisions on unitary plan positions to a sub-committee because of time constraints, but chose not to do that for this topic.

Deferral was only defeated 9-8, and its move to the confidential section of the agenda only succeeded 9-8 after Cllr Arthur Anae abstained from voting.

Consultation to start on Aotea Quarter framework despite much bristling

The council development committee agreed today to send a proposal for an Aotea Quarter framework out to consultation, including work with focus groups, with its close extended to October. The debate included a lot of questioning of the role the Treaty of Waitangi should play – Cllr George Wood argued it was entirely irrelevant and Cllr Mike Lee said there needed to be more emphasis on civic.

Cllr Chris Darby took a constructive view of a transformed precinct of the cbd: “I see this area becoming as seductive as the waterfront has been since the America’s Cup back in the 90s, that woke us up as to the waterfront and look at it now.

Aotea Station will become the busiest station in the city… One of the things long forgotten is the importance of the Waihorotiu Stream, it’s been buried but not forgotten. I’d love to see that stream flow & show again.”

The committee agreed on a submission to the Productivity Commission about the commission’s draft report, Using land for housing, but only after a wide-ranging debate that begin with Cllr Mike Lee contesting the view “that population growth equates to economic growth which equates to quality”.

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